I'm reading and hearing that the PK is a strength because they killed 18 out of 20, but I'm watching this PK unit allowing Tavares all day to control the puck, I'm seeing the Islanders miss wide open nets, and I'm wondering if 18 of 20 would be 15 of 20 if we were facing a better PP unit.

Am I crazy or are the numbers lying to us here? If they play like this against Ottawa, Karlsson, Alfie, Gonchar, et al., and going to have a field day.

burghsportsguys wrote:I'm reading and hearing that the PK is a strength because they killed 18 out of 20, but I'm watching this PK unit allowing Tavares all day to control the puck, I'm seeing the Islanders miss wide open nets, and I'm wondering if 18 of 20 would be 15 of 20 if we were facing a better PP unit.

Am I crazy or are the numbers lying to us here? If they play like this against Ottawa, Karlsson, Alfie, Gonchar, et al., and going to have a field day.

I was neither impressed nor unimpressed with the PK. It was adequate but not great.

Our forwards are impossibly slow, which makes it difficult to close gaps. Going forward, I don't have much faith in this unit, but at least it was better than last year. Woo hoo?

Special teams were huge for the Pens in this series and won Game 3. The one that really sticks out is the effort by Cooke, et al. to kill Iginla's penalty to keep it 4-4 in that game when the place was going nuts.

That said, I agree to he extent that the PK can't be called a "strength." But it really doesn't need to be if the Pens start playing like they can ES.

shmenguin wrote:I was neither impressed nor unimpressed with the PK. It was adequate but not great.

Our forwards are impossibly slow, which makes it difficult to close gaps. Going forward, I don't have much faith in this unit, but at least it was better than last year. Woo hoo?

I'd agree with that.

And as others have said, yes, the numbers are the numbers. But in this case, the numbers are being used to validate the performance of the unit. In the DBPC last night, they brought it up as a strength. I'm not sure it's a strength, that's all I'm trying to say. If they play like this for entire playoffs and post over 80%, I'd be surprised.

I saw Sid in there for a faceoff last night. He lost the faceoff, but after that, he pressured the puck on a few passes, and eventually forced it out of zone. It would be nice to see more of that from the standard PKers.

shmenguin wrote:I was neither impressed nor unimpressed with the PK. It was adequate but not great.

Our forwards are impossibly slow, which makes it difficult to close gaps. Going forward, I don't have much faith in this unit, but at least it was better than last year. Woo hoo?

I'd agree with that.

And as others have said, yes, the numbers are the numbers. But in this case, the numbers are being used to validate the performance of the unit. In the DBPC last night, they brought it up as a strength. I'm not sure it's a strength, that's all I'm trying to say. If they play like this for entire playoffs and post over 80%, I'd be surprised.

I saw Sid in there for a faceoff last night. He lost the faceoff, but after that, he pressured the puck on a few passes, and eventually forced it out of zone. It would be nice to see more of that from the standard PKers.

It would be nice to see Crosby on the PK more often, not just for defensive zone draws and immediately off the ice. If 66 can play the PK, so can 87.

The Isles missed a lot of relative tap ins on the PP last night. They completely changed their system, too. When Fleury was in net, they tried to generate chances and attack from the goal line; last night, they adjusted to using cross crease passes. They adapted their PP to attack each goalie's biggest weakness but we're still quite unsuccessful - and both Fleury and Vokoun are a big reason why.

tfrizz wrote:The Isles missed a lot of relative tap ins on the PP last night. They completely changed their system, too. When Fleury was in net, they tried to generate chances and attack from the goal line; last night, they adjusted to using cross crease passes. They adapted their PP to attack each goalie's biggest weakness but we're still quite unsuccessful - and both Fleury and Vokoun are a big reason why.

Just to back this up with some numbers:

Fleury put up a .905 sv% on the PK in the round (2 goals against on 21 shots) and Vokoun put up a perfect 1.000 sv% on the PK (0 goals against on 10 shots). Both very good numbers on the PK.